I said to my daughter a couple of weeks ago (as id have to get her out of school early). We won't go if pouring. Looks like we will make it...just. we heart Peter Dean

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I got back from overseas last night and looking forward to season 2026 and to catch up with the TC Sydney contingent to talk Carlton before the Swans game. I look forward to attending next weeks Lions game, and watching our boys praccy game at Ikon v Cats in two weeks with my TC buddies.

SB is great fun, and he knows his football. He will admit he’s a bit of a pessimist with all things Carlton, and he makes a great point here. Yeah, ithe fixture is always unfair to teams (except Collingwood, Richmond and Melbourne). How much if a hindrance ithe fixture will be for Carlton is debatable.

As always our challenge is to find a way to beat whoever is in front of us wherever we play them. Home advantage is a thing, but apart from a few metres in width and depth, footy grounds are similar in shape, and the rules and weather are the same for both teams.

When the ball is bounced/ thrown up players don’t think about the suburb, city or state. There’s a game to be played. 18 v 18. The best team usually wins. Carlton support is strong in every state and every ground in Victoria. The players don’t feel alienated, and they say sometimes playing interstate feels like a home game, such is the support. Playing either Marvel or MCG is a home game for Carlton.

Hopefully, we have a great year and rise to the top 4 as a powerhouse, and put our club in a position to influence the H&A fixture like Collingwood does. In the meantime, we have a game to play.

It’s easy to find reasons to feel pessimistic, but I don’t think our last 30 years have been shaped by fixture. Just look at last year. Injury was our enemy. Our challenge is for us is to stay fit, and play team football. We have talent and stars on every line.

Our list, and team looks better without Charlie and SOS imo. I feel we will make Finals, and history says we don’t rely on TDK, Charlie or SOS in Finals since 2023. IIRC when we fell 3 goals short of a GF, Pitto was our No 1 ruck. Let the Jagga-Walsh era begin.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

McKay Hayward & Ainsworth > Curnow McKay & Durdin

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Ainsworth is underrated . Reckon he's gonna be the surprise packet amongst that lot .

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All my dangerous friends

Reckon we just lost the one player we couldn't lose. We're going to pay the price for our continued ignorance in recruiting key position defenders and probably means Derksen becomes an SSP shoe in, but not sure he does a whole lot for us. Expectations rise and fall significantly depending on the outcome of Weitering injury

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Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son.

We haven’t lost Weiters yet, and we will get KPD cover. Weiters will be OK.

At 194cm I don’t think Derksen is a bonafide KPD to handle bigger players like Hogan. A similar stature as Curnow, he may match up with Curnow athletically, but Curnow has him covered in the air imo.

Curnow needs someone bigger or taller, with speed. I think Young will get him if Weiters hasnt recovered in a months time. Who knows, Haynes may be rushed back, a bit underdone to close down Curnow and release Young for MacDonald.

Surely you don’t think Weiters will miss more than a couple games, let alone the season. We have a bye after first 2 games.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Dead right Mick.
He’s quick, smart, elusive, dual sided, tough, team first and knows where the goals are.

Can’t say that about Curnow.
I don’t want a Coleman Medal, I want a Flag.
Can only win one of those with 23 players committed to a team first attitude.

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Everyone looks good in Navy Blue

Carlton's Gameplan in 2025 vs 2026 | Titch & Ginni Show - 003

Watch from the 18 minute mark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9brDvdjsJ8

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"You are being watched. The government has a secret system. A machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it." - Finch

A good watch. The emptying out detail shows exactly why players like Cripps or resting rucks can be a liability when playing as a forward. We saw it numerous times last week where the Swans pushed Gulden behind the ball (including kick ins) and they created the loose man with our unwillingness/inability to chase and pressure. Teams train consistently on how to create and use a spare player. 17 v 18, 5 v6, whatever. The lower the number gets, the more likely they are to exploit you. They torched us with their back half run in the 3rd.

The other thing I noticed last week was the Swans rolling the dice and intentionally leaving a player 10m attacking side of the stoppage in the second half, and allowing us the extra at the ball. The instruction was to just jam the ball forward by any means forward of the contest and they were away. Knock on, scrubber handball, whatever. When it doesn't work, people will saying you're "cheating" or hanging out for the easy ball but when get your hands on the ball inside, everyone's on the same page and it works, teams can put on big scores quickly.

No doubt Richmond will do the same this week. Clubs scout how the oppo exploit you and they'll jump on this one. Usually a half forward will push up or the skinny side wing will man up the loose so hopefully our coaches will have a solid counter strategy.
Let's face it, the spare defender did very little for us last week. Especially Kemp when he had the job. Instead of filling the leading lane or pushing up to become a 3rd man up, he anchored himself as the deepest defender and consistently watch it sail over his head for a goal.
If the spare isn't influencing, change the strategy. Hopefully with Carroll coming in this week, our ability to shift the ball off the line will be further enhanced. He's probably our best exponent of it.

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Looking forward to seeing our potential realised.

Which had been going on a year and a half
I don’t totally blame the coaching staff
Players as well
But why do we keep playing basically the same players
Make them unaccountable
Drop them
Play kids and see how it goes
There should have been 6 changes this week not 3

Exactly the reason why some of us are frustrated with having everyone inside the contest and not playing anyone outside for run and give. It's just so obvious and frustrating.

Good watch.
Getting quicker players in the middle and in the F50 should help us a lot.
The other thing to note is in the Sydney game their mids kicked 6 goals and ours kicked 0.

A complete waste.

A coach focused on self preservation persisting with failed senior players to grind out the worst wins in our history.

We are in a state of limbo until he’s sacked or he walks.

I think I said somewhere I'd eat andrew walkers hat if carlton only won 5 or 6 games in 2026. I'm looking up some recipes.

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On the evidence of the first two games, we are clearly a bottom 6 side. Probably bottom 4.

Not happy about it but that’s the reality.

Reading between the lines with some of the language coming from the club (players, coaches and officials), the club know this too.

The unannounced rebuild as I posted previously. Can’t openly say this in preseason or early in the year when trying to sell hope.

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We are on our way back...

There is this concept called improvement. Maybe last night was a very low base to start from, & it gets better as these players learn to sync with each other.

We underestimate also how much of a difference guys like Cottrell make. We always look a better side with him in IMO. Would have been handy last night when we needed players to run past for the receive instead of just standing.

Last night was garbage but we get a fortnight break then the dees & North. Let's see how we're tracking after that.

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#DonTheStash

I'm not feeling great but we always struggle against Sydney in Sydney and Richmond.